Like any good teacher, Alyse Edwards did some prep work before sitting
down for our interview specifically, reading past Staff Q&As.

I was reading some of the other Staff Q&As and Im like,
God, I did not do anything deserving of this treatment, she said.

We beg to differ. Doing your job so well that students and colleagues
line up to praise you is certainly deserving of feature treatment. And
that, says Edwards colleague Steve Feld, academic coordinator in
the Graduate School of Educations Higher Education Management Program,
is exactly what happened once he submitted her name for the schools
annual Service to Students Award.

Nominations came in from everywhere, Feld said of the letters
supporting her for the award. So many of them, in fact, that it might
be said that she won this years Service to Students Award by acclamation.

But to hear her tell it, shes just doing her job.

Q. So what is it that you do exactly?
A. Im the division coordinator. [Since our interview, she was
promoted to division manager.] I basically do all the day-to-day operations
of the division, a division of about 130-plus students.

Im also the academic advisor for all of the masters students
in the program. And Im also the contact person for anyone thats
interested in our program. Anyone that wants information on our program,
anyone who wants to come meet, that wants to speak with other students,
I coordinate that and meet with these people.

My days are theres no set schedule, Im meeting with
students, talking with students, and maybe paperwork. Im on e-mail
a lot, I feel like e-mail kind of dictates my day to an extent, because
I have queries from all over, from current students, from alums, from
inquiries

Q. What do you do with the alums?
A. First of all, we like to keep track of our alums because we want
to know what theyre doing when they leave us, so they can be of
a resource for our current students, especially when it comes time to
find jobs and job placement.

We will sometimes ask alums to come back and participate in student panels,
career panels. We have a reading project that we do when our new students
come in. We assign them a buddy or a mentor, usually theyre an alum
or a very recent graduate, to kind of mentor the new students along.

Q. Is your own educational background in education, since you serve
as an academic advisor as well?
A. I am a former teacher.

Q. Where did you teach?
A. I went from New York, less than a year in New York, teaching up
there, and then I came here and taught in the Rose Tree Media School District.
I was a special education teacher, and the thing that drove me to be a
teacher and still drives a lot of what I do is my love for students and
my love for learning and my love for interacting with people. And part
of this job was I guess so fulfilling to me was to advise students,
work with them on a daily basis, and although its not the same as
little 10-year-olds, Im still doing a lot of the same thing.

Q. Really?
A. Yeah. I help them register for classes, I help them pick out their
classes and provide advice about classes, career advice just little
things that we dont even think about. And I never thought about
it because at this point I think, These are graduate students. They should
know what they have to do, initiative, responsibility. But a lot of them
still need support. And so really thats what Im here for
to give them anything that they might need.

Q. What led you to switch from being a teacher to being an administrator?
A. I was at the point where I was enjoying teaching but was feeling
a little burnt out from special education and just wanted to try something
different. And Id always felt that admissions work was really interesting.
And so I sent out some resumes and look around and wound up coming here
working in the Undergraduate Admissions Office. And after doing that for
a couple of years, I was yearning to work with students on a more day-to-day
basis. And so now I feel like Im coming more full circle back to
some of the things I was doing when I was in the classroom.

Sometimes youre with kids all day, and as wonderful as that can
be, you sometimes I found I was in that mode and sometimes Id
come home and Id still be kind of in that teacher mode and at least
here, Im having adult conversations and thats real nice. I
get to find out about [the students] lives and talk about stuff
outside of work and outside of the program, and thats fun.

Q. What was your reaction when you found out you had won the award?
A. I was completely blown away. I had no idea it was coming and they
all knew. And it was at a school-wide meeting that it was presented, and
they called my name, said it was Staff Appreciation Day and they were
going to present the award. So I was up there and then they read this
little commentary and I was overwhelmed, completely surprised. It took
about a day or so until it really sunk in. Its very nice to see
hard work paying off and to feel appreciated. I know I get that from the
students a lot.

Penn Current Express

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